The Countywide Strategic plan is a comprehensive planning document that organizes County government’s long-term vision into 10 strategic priority areas and 29 strategic goals. The Strategic Priorities outlined in this document were established to help maintain a focus on the most critical issues facing us as a local government over the next five years. They provide focus for policy and funding decisions and, where appropriate, provide guidance in the reallocation of existing resources. The accomplishments listed in the annual reports are reflective of the actions departments are taking to contribute to the overall success of achieving the goals in the plan.

The La Paz County Comprehensive Plan is the first overall plan for development countywide. Due to the passage of new state requirements and a desire to plan for the future, the La Paz County Board of Supervisors contracted with Partners for Strategic Action, Inc. to develop the county’s first comprehensive plan. The consulting team was directed to solicit broad community participation, study the county planning area, and develop a plan that would be an easy-to-understand policy document that will guide La Paz County’s development in the future.

The city of Phoenix Planning Department was asked to prepare a land use plan to identify goals and policies to guide development decisions for an area beyond the banks of the Salt River and to complement the Phoenix Rio Salado Habitat Restoration Project (Rio Salado Project). In response, the Planning Department initiated a five-phase planning process to develop an area plan. The resulting plan builds on the community's vision of how the area will develop in the future and identifies the steps needed to make that vision a reality.